


Saving The Prince

by angelus2hot



Category: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Genre: Angst, Community: smallfandomfest, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-29
Updated: 2013-01-29
Packaged: 2017-11-27 09:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/660381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How can he save his wife, when he can't even save himself?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saving The Prince

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** Saving The Prince  
>  **Fandom:** Hercules the Legendary Journeys  
>  **Characters/Pairing:** Hercules/Deianeira  
>  **Rating:** PG-13  
>  **Word Count:** 1,276  
>  **Summary:** How can he save his wife, when he can't even save himself?  
>  **A/N:** written for [Smallfandomfest's](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com) fest 12

Hercules stormed through the Elysian Fields, every line of his body taut with anger and something else that wasn’t hard to see if one cared enough to look. Despair. In his search for Deianeira, he didn’t notice the calm tranquility or the beauty of the place his wife and children now called home. All he knew that this was the one place they shouldn’t be. At least not yet.

Suddenly, he spotted her. She was watching their children playing in the distance. He wanted to run to them. To scoop them up in his arms and take them all back home where they belonged. But he couldn’t do that. It was against the rules. He bit back a bitter sigh. 

He pulled his eyes away from his children. Now was the time of reckoning, even though his wife didn’t know what he had been doing, he still had to tell her that he had failed to save her. He sat down on the bench overlooking the fields and waited patiently for Deianeira to join him. Hercules looked around to make sure the children were still off in the distance playing before he began to turn towards his.. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t look his wife in the eyes. He hung his head as a soft sigh escaped him before he began to speak, “I tried everything I knew how to do. I traveled everywhere searching for the answers. I asked anyone who I thought could help but no one and nothing I tried worked.” For a brief moment he titled his head up and looked at his wife before once more allowing his head to drop. _How could he tell her the one person who should have helped him, who could have helped him, was the one who refused the loudest? And for no other reason than he didn’t want to anger Hera any further._

“Tried what? What were you looking for, Hercules?” A look of confusion wrinkled her forehead as she stared at her husband.

“I tried to find a way to get you and the children released from the Elysian Fields.” 

“I don’t understand, Hercules. You know that isn’t possible. The children and I have already passed through the mortal world and nothing will bring us back.” Deianeira laid a comforting hand gently on his shoulder, hoping to take the sting out of her words.. “Please, Hercules. Look at me.” She placed a finger on his chin and urged his head up until he was staring her in the eyes. 

He ignored what she said. He didn’t believe it. He couldn’t. “You don’t belong here, Deianeira. None of you do. You and the children should be back home. I should be able to hold you, to love you. But I can’t.”

She still didn’t understand. It had been years since they had come to live in the Elysian Fields. Surely he hadn’t been trying for all this time. At least she hoped he hadn’t. No one deserved to suffer like this and especially not Hercules. “How long have you been trying to...?”

“Two years, six months and twenty-seven days.”

“How do you....”

Hercules quickly interrupted before she could finish her question. “It’s something that Salmoneus invented. I think he called it a calendar. But I’m not sure. He thinks it will bring him big dinars. But that’s not the...” He pinched the bridge of his nose and paused for a minute. “Anyway, I’ve been using it to mark the passage of time. So, that I will know how much time has passed since you...” His voice broke on the last words.

“Why is this so important to you, Hercules?”

His hands trembled as he reached up and pushed the tangled mass of hair out of his wife’s eyes so that he could see her face clearly. “Don’t you understand, Deianeira? I have to save you.” He whispered the words so softly it was almost too hard to hear them.

“But why?”

“Because it will save me too.”

This was Hercules. He was the strongest, bravest man she had ever met. The thought that he might need saving had honestly never occurred to her. “No, I don’t understand, Hercules. Why would you need to be saved? What’s going on?” 

“I.....” _How was he supposed to tell her that he couldn’t live without her, that he didn’t want to live without her._

Deianeira quickly scooted off the bench and moved to kneel at Hercules’ feet. She placed her hands on his thighs. “Don’t you know you can tell me anything?”

Tears filled his eyes as he stared at his wife. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. They were supposed to be together forever... Or at least for a very long time. But he could count the number of years he had had with his wife and children and the number barely made it into the double digits.

“Hercules?”

“I miss you, Deianeira. After you and the children were...” He couldn’t say the word. “Afterwards, I didn’t want to help anyone. But Iolaus wouldn’t let me give up. He kept after me day after day. But nothing really helped. I just don’t care. I’m not a man anymore, Deianeira. I’m an empty shell with nothing left on the inside. I...”

When he quit talking, she gently urged him to continue.

“Do you remember the story that I used to tell to Ilea before she would go to sleep? The one where the princess was captured against her will and taken far away from the prince?” Deianeira nodded her head she was almost positive where this was going. “For years the prince went through all kinds of trials and tribulations but eventually he found her and brought her back with him.” He paused before he continued, “Well, I know where my princess is but no matter how hard I try I can’t find a way to bring her back. I can’t save you, Deianeira.” 

Tears filled Deianeira’s eyes before they overflowed and coursed down her cheeks. She hated that Hercules was suffering so much. She wished there was something she could say or do to make him realize how much he had already saved her. And then a thought occurred to her. “You have always saved me, Hercules. Sometimes it was from monsters but more often then not you saved me from myself. I...”

“But I couldn’t save you when it counted.”

Deianeira quickly placed a finger against his lips. “I don’t regret a moment of our time together. Not one moment, do you understand?”

He kissed the tip of her finger that she still held against his lips. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

“Is this what this is all about?” She let her hand drop, her fingers slipped inside of his shirt to curl through the hair that covered his chest. “I’m here, Hercules.” She scooted her hand closer, to cover his heart. “As long as I’m here, you’ll never lose me.”

“I’ll never let you go. You will always have my heart.” He clasped his hand around hers. “It just hurts sometimes more than I can stand.”

Slowly, Deianeira untangled her hand from his and slipped her arms around his waist and let her head fall against his stomach. She smiled as his large hand covered the side of her head and held her against him. “I’m here, Hercules. I will always be here.”

For hours they stayed like this, Deianeira kneeling at his feet while Hercules held onto her for dear life. 

_Who would have thought that this time it was the princess who would save the prince?_


End file.
